Discover the secret to awakening Riolu’s true power in Pokémon Legends: Z-A. Uncover step-by-step tips and hidden tricks to evolve this mysterious fighter and unleash its full potential in your adventure!
How to evolve Riolu in Pokémon Legends: Z-A
To evolve Riolu in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, you need to raise its friendship to a high level and then level it up during the daytime. Focus on battling with Riolu, using healing items, and avoiding letting it faint to boost its friendship quickly. Once Riolu’s friendship is maxed, leveling it up in the day will trigger its evolution into Lucario. Make sure to check your friendship level regularly to know when it’s ready to evolve.
To evolve Riolu in Pokémon Legends: Z-A, you’ll need a high friendship level during the daytime. There are a few ways to increase friendship in Legends: Z-A:
- Get a drink from a café with your Pokémon.
- Hang out with your Pokémon at a bench.
- Level up your Pokémon.
- Use an item on your Pokémon.
In our experience, the fastest and most efficient way to increase your friendship is to go to Nouveau Café and purchase either Fresh Water or Sparkling Water as they both only cost $100 and each drink offers the same amount of friendship. During our testing, a freshly caught Riolu evolved after four drinks at a café, so you’ll only need to spend around $400.
Best ways to max Riolu friendship fast in Legends Z-A
The best and fastest ways to max Riolu’s friendship in Pokémon Legends: Z-A involve a few key activities centered around cafés and specific items:
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Take Riolu (make sure it’s the first Pokémon in your party) to a café, preferably Nouveau Café in Lumiose City, and buy drinks such as Fresh Water, Sparkling Water, coffee, or tea. Each purchase significantly boosts friendship, and typically four purchases are enough to max friendship quickly. You can leave the café immediately after buying a drink to speed up the process.
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Equip Riolu with the Soothe Bell if possible, which increases friendship gains. You can get the Soothe Bell by completing certain side missions, such as “Some Friendly Competition.”
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Spending time relaxing with Riolu on a bench in the game also increases friendship for all party Pokémon simultaneously, though this is slower than cafés.
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Using Riolu in battles, leveling it up, smashing Mega Crystals around town, and feeding certain stat-enhancing items or berries that boost friendship can help, but the café method is the fastest.
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Repeating these café drink purchases is the most time-efficient way, allowing max friendship in under two minutes.
Following these methods will get Riolu ready to evolve into Lucario quickly through friendship evolution during the day.
Which café drinks give the biggest friendship boost
The best café drinks to give the biggest friendship boost in Pokémon Legends: Z-A are essentially all the drinks available at cafés, as they each provide the same friendship increase. In particular, Fresh Water and Sparkling Water at Nouveau Café in Lumiose City are popular and cost-effective choices at $100 each. Coffee and tea also give the same friendship points as water-based drinks. The specific type of drink doesn’t affect the amount of friendship gained; the key factor is simply purchasing and drinking any café beverage with the Pokémon you want to boost friendship with. Repeated visits and purchases at any café will quickly raise the Pokémon’s friendship level uniformly regardless of drink type.
